


As The World Falls Down

by MedieavalBeabe



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Dark Romance, Fear, Gen, Kissing, Love, Queen Sarah (Labyrinth), Romance, Seduction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-17 18:05:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4676234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MedieavalBeabe/pseuds/MedieavalBeabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years after besting the Labyrinth, why does Sarah still dream about it? And why does she dream of Jareth?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dream

_Spinning._

 

_Circling._

_Everything seemed so strange and yet strangely beautiful. Dancers twisting and turning across the floor, dressed in masks that were like nothing she had ever seen in her world before. But then, she reminded herself, she wasn’t in her world anymore._

_The dress she was wearing was like one from her wildest dreams, one she had always fantasized about wearing as a child, white and shimmery, a full skirt and billowing sleeves. She caught sight of herself in the glass to her left and was surprised to see that she no longer looked like a teenager, but a young woman, with a youthful innocence about her face, no longer a child. Her hair was curled and adorned with silver ribbons and trinkets, like a princess in a fairytale. As she stepped into the room, dancers turned to look at her, as if she brought light to the room just by being there._

_Glamour was everywhere and her eyes searched, but didn’t see what she was searching for._

_Not until he was right in front of her._

_Amid the spinning and the laughing as the music began to pick up, she made her way cautiously forwards, seeking, seeking, and then there he was. The mask fell away and he looked at her, intently, his expression serious but something in his eyes was soft, like a smile. She felt drawn in, as if some invisible thread had caught her heart and he was holding the other end, pulling her forwards, drawing her to him._

_And then, before she could move, he was lost among the dancers again._

_She moved forwards, searching among the masked figures, not knowing he was watching her from behind. A box opened near her feet and she jumped at the contents inside, her heart rate picking up as those around her laughed. No, now, this didn’t feel real, it felt like a dream. Where was he? She needed him, something solid to cling onto, something human, or human-like at least, to keep her upright in this dizzying room._

_Someone almost knocked her over, without even registering she was there, and she flinched, wanting to be near_ him _again. Why would he hide from her? Couldn’t he see that she needed him? All this, it was thrilling, but facing it alone was scary. Would he really let her go through it alone?_

_She felt out of place like this, no one to dance with._

_He watched as she passed him without knowing it, from behind the fan, watched her searching and smiled, like a tiger stalking pray. The thrill of the chase, it sent a rush through him like no other._

_Smiling, he turned away, but when he next saw her, she was looking lost and vulnerable, the child inside the woman emerging, calling for aid._

_She was out of her depth in this place without him._

_He made his way towards her, other dancers parting to let him pass, as she stood, turning around, lost in a sea of masked figures, not knowing which was to turn. Again and again, dancers brushed into her or trapped her and she had to weave her way through them to find a space where she could look for him, find somewhere to stand, along, trying to catch a glimpse of him again._

_A feather fan moved to one side, and suddenly he was there, in front of her again. Her breath caught in her throat, sending a fluttering of emotions through her all at once. Her eyes widened as he stepped up to her, not saying a word, and automatically she lifted her arms. He took one hand in his own, placed his other on her waist as hers came up to his shoulder, like they had been born to fit together._

_And somehow she knew the dance, following it as if she had been taught it her whole life._

_They moved in step with one another, with the other dancers, and time meant nothing. It could have been a minute, it could have been an hour, she couldn’t tell. And then she realised he was singing to her, along with the music that was playing._

_“But I’ll be there for you_

_As the world falls down...”_

_Her heart raced. Could he mean what she thought he meant? Was he genuinely telling her that he would be there for her? Always? Did he...did he_ love _her? The idea was strange and yet so intoxicating it made her dizzy._

_She turned her head to see the other dancers, all dancing, all watching her, tantalizingly slowly._

_Was he waiting for her to answer?_

_The words were on her lips, but suddenly the sound of the clock on the mantle rang out, and she felt giddy, seasick almost, as his face and others blurred into one, and she pulled herself out of his grip and fought her way past the other dancers, not realising that his heart was breaking to let her go, and there was no way through the glass but to break it and then she was sucked in and falling into darkness, dragged down and down and down..._

Sarah opened her eyes.

 

The ringing was still there. What was it? It couldn’t be that clock with thirteen hours from her past, could it? She sat up, violently, and then sighed in relief. It was her alarm clock. Nothing sinister. Even so, as she knelt over to switch it off, she felt a childish desire to check under the bed for goblins.

 

Why, she asked herself, as she finally dragged herself out of bed and peered at herself in the mirror of her small room in the tiny apartment she was now occupying, paying rent every month to a seedy landlord, couldn’t she stop dreaming about it?

 

And why couldn’t she stop dreaming about _him?_

 

Sarah groaned and rubbed her eyes.

 

“No more,” she muttered to herself. “It’s over.”

 

Even as she said it, she remembered that only last week she had needed Hoggle, the one she missed most of all her friends from the Labyrinth. Ever since that one time they had been able to cross over into her world the same night she had bested the Labyrinth and defeated the Goblin King, when they had had a wild party in her bedroom even as her Father and Stepmother came in from their evening out, she had only been able to talk to them as a reflection. Hoggle had explained to her that magic was complicated in the Labyrinth and not to expect things to always happen the same way twice. Sarah, of course, knew that from experience, but it was frustrating not to be able to actually hug Hoggle or Sir Didymus or Ludo or Ambrosius anymore. She did wonder more than once if that had something to do with her growing up, to not actually needing them there in flesh even if she did occasionally need them there in spirit.

 

But that was different. They were her friends. She was perfectly within her rights to dream about them.

 

So why did she also dream about Jareth?

 

And not just any dreams, but dreams that always left her awake with a hot feeling pooling into her core, the feeling that she wanted more than just to see him, but to touch him, to feel him, to have him touch her, feel her...

 

It was strange knowing that even though he had been her enemy, he had tried to stop her from reclaiming her little brother from the Labyrinth, and in several very dangerous ways, that he was actually in love with her. He had as good as told her that.

 

_“I move the stars for no one.”_

_“I have done it all for you.”_

_“Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave.”_

At the time, she had ignored that, focusing on just finding Toby and getting home again, but now, as she thought about it, she realised it was somewhat...attractive? Appealing? Desirable? Reciprocated?

 

_Reciprocated? Where did that come from?_

 

In his own twisted way, she supposed, he really had thought he was helping her. When she had wished Toby away, he had granted it. He had shown her the Labyrinth, a place where fantasies became realities. In doing that she had met Hoggle and Sir Didymus and Ludo; what if she hadn’t gone to the Labyrinth? She would never have known them then. He had given her every chance to turn and run when she wanted to, but she never had. And then, he had let her go, when she had uttered those words.

 

_“You have no power over me!”_

 

His look of defeat as he had thrown the crystal into the air, transformed into an owl, beaten at her with his wings as if begging her _Please, please, don’t do this, stay with me, I love you, I need you, don’t do this..._

 

_Hell!_

 

Why was she feeling guilty over this?

 

She glanced at herself in the mirror, wondering if this was one of those times when she needed Hoggle for advice. In the end, however, she decided no, besides she had no time, she had to work an extra shift at the diner today, and then the rent was...wait, what was the date?

 

“Shit!” Sarah cursed, seeing the calendar on the wall.

 

Rent day had been yesterday, and she hadn’t paid.

 

Sarah swore again under her breath as she quickly pulled on her uniform and checked the jar she kept the rent money in. As she had expected, it wasn’t nearly enough.

 

“What am I going to do?” Sarah muttered, pouring herself a quick coffee and trying to calm down. In any other situation she wouldn’t worry so much, but her landlord wasn’t someone she trusted all that much. She had caught him before looking at her in a rather lecherous manner and she hated it. It wasn’t like when Jareth looked at her, not lecherously, but knowingly, sort of knowing that it might be something she-

 

 _Stop it,_ she told herself, sternly.

 

But it wasn’t the same, though. The way Jacob looked at her made her feel sick. The way Jareth looked at her filled her with a sense of longing, much as she hated to admit it.

 

Perhaps, she noted, it was now that she was looking at her past adventures through the Labyrinth from an adult point of view. As a teenager, she had seen him as the enemy, not looked at him in the way he looked at her. But now...as an adult...

 

If she had been the age she was now, twenty, going through the Labyrinth and Jareth had appeared before her, would she have defied him? Or would she have submitted? Would she had protested? Or flirted with him?

 

_What if-?_

 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the knocking on her door and immediately fear pooled into her stomach. Somehow she just knew it was Jacob.

 

_Shit!_

 

“Miss Williams?” The knock came again. “Miss Williams?”

 

Quietly, Sarah got to her feet, wondering if he would go away if she stayed quiet. After all, he had a key. But then, perhaps if she didn’t answer, he would assume she had gone to work already and leave.

 

“Miss Williams?”

 

She took a step back and accidently knocked her chair over.

 

_Shit!_

 

“Miss Williams?”

 

She sighed. “Hold on, I’m just coming!”

 

Hell, why did she say that? She didn’t know what to say.

 

Still, like an automaton, she moved towards the door and pulled it open.

 

Jacob grinned at her toothily and then fixed his expression into a serious one.

 

“You missed rent day,” he said.

 

“Yeah, I know, and I am so sorry,” Sarah groaned, wishing she’d thought to empty the tip jar from the day before, hang how hard the other waitresses had all worked too. She needed it more than they did, surely? “I don’t have the full amount and I’ve been trying but-”

 

“Not good enough, Miss Williams,” Jacob replied, folding his arms. “I’ve got to make a living here.”

 

“Can you just give me one more day?” Sarah asked. “I’m sure I can make it up when I’m done at the diner.”

 

Jacob looked her up and down. “I could wave it this month...for a price.”

 

Sarah swallowed, feeling sick.

 

“No, no,” she said, airily, although her voice was very high-pitched. “That’s fine. I’m sure I can find the money somewhere...”

 

“Oh, come on, Sarah,” he purred, forcing his way past her. Sarah stumbled back against the sofa, her brain reeling, wondering what to do. She didn’t want him anywhere near her. What was she meant to do? “I’m not that repulsive, am I?”

 

“N-no,” she stammered, hating that she was scared of him right now.

 

_Get a grip, Sarah! You’ve faced the Labyrinth! Why does this man scare you?_

_Nothing in the Labyrinth ever tried to molest me! Even Jareth didn’t do that?_

_Would you have wanted him to?_

_What? No!_

_Are you sure about that?_

She swallowed hard. “I have to go to work, Jacob.”

 

“Phone sick.”

 

“I can’t.” She moved backwards as his hands reached for her. “Get away! I don’t want you!”

 

His lips curled into a sneer. “Not good enough for you, am I? I’ll bet you’ve had hundreds of others in that bed of yours, you little whore!”

 

Sarah brought up a hand to slap him but he caught her painfully by the wrist. “How dare you?!”

 

_Help me, someone, help! I wish-!_

 

It was the only thing she could think of.

 

As Jacob managed to swing her about and fling her onto the sofa, Sarah struggled up on her elbows to see him leaning down over her. She opened her mouth, but what came out wasn’t a scream, it was a command, a wish.

 

“I wish the goblins would come and take me away **right now!”**

 

The windows flew open, almost shattering the glass, there was a flurry of white, something brushing her face, what, feathers, and then she felt herself falling, falling where, falling with a scream until something caught hold of her, keeping her from hitting the floor. Her mind was whirling. Had that just happened? Had she really just been attacked by her landlord? Over the rent? And had she really just wished to be back in the Labyrinth just to get away from him?

 

“Sarah.”

 

She looked up into the face of the Goblin King, his smooth features a mixture of amusement and triumph.

 

“Welcome back.”


	2. Allure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five years after besting the Labyrinth, why does Sarah still dream about it? And why does she dream of Jareth?

For a second, Sarah just stared up at him. Then, inexplicably, she righted herself and flung her arms around his neck. Jareth was too startled by her reaction to move for a moment, even though this was what he had always dreamed of, holding her like this, but he was so used to her keeping her distance, defying him, that by the time he started to move his arms to return her embrace she had thrown herself away from him with a cry of “No, get off!”

 

Jareth chuckled, bemused by the return of her feisty nature. “Sarah, _you_ hugged me.”

 

Sarah ignored him and glared around the room, recognising it as part of the Labyrinth by design, even though it was a room that she herself had never actually set foot in. Of course, the large ornate chair in the centre of the room gave it away as the Throne Room.

 

“Why did you bring me here?” she fired at him.

 

Jareth looked at her in the same way he had that first night, when his goblins had snatched Toby from her, when he had folded his arms and sounded vaguely amused that she hadn’t meant to wish for it. “Sarah, _you_ wished to come here. Of your own free will.” He looked at her, cocking his head on one side. “Don’t tell me you didn’t mean it, again?”

 

She shot him a fierce look. “I was desperate, ok? I didn’t think you’d actually-!”

 

“Sarah, _you_ wished to come here, and the Labyrinth did the rest. _I_ did nothing.” Jareth raised an eyebrow at her as he folded his arms. “Though I won’t say that I’m sorry you came back.”

 

Sarah scowled at him. “Well, then, you can take me back home right now!”

 

“It doesn’t work like that, Sarah.”

 

“You have no power over me!”

 

Jareth flinched, visibly, and sighed. “That only worked when you were trying to win back your brother.”

 

“Well, then, how do I win back my freedom?” Sarah snapped. “Do I have to make a wish? Fine! I wish I was back home right now!”

 

To her surprise, nothing happened, and Jareth laughed.

 

“But, Sarah, my dear, you _are_ home.”

 

She stared at him, her resolve weakening. “Wh-what?”

 

“You. Are. Home.” Jareth repeated, stepping closer to her.

 

_Damn him for being so ethereally gorgeous!_

 

His eyes looked like they could see right into her soul, and she suddenly found herself hoping that he couldn’t tell that whilst her mind was screaming at her to run, her heart was racing faster at the way he was looking at her. She hadn’t noticed before just how damned fit he was, that his shirts were so low cut and his trousers so tight fitting that every muscle, yes, every one, was visible, or that such a thing was sending a rippling feeling through her body and making her feel warm. He had shucked his usual dark leather coat but not his gloves, and she wondered briefly if he ever actually took them off.

 

She pulled herself together and shook her head. “What are you talking about? This isn’t my home!”

 

“Isn’t it?” Was it her imagination or was he toying with her, the way he always used to? “Well, look at it this way. Aren’t all your friends here? That great furry creature and the little fox and that Higgle.”

 

“Hoggle,” Sarah corrected him.

 

“Whatever. They are all here, aren’t they?” Sarah didn’t want to answer so she just glared at him. To her annoyance, this only served to make him smile at her. “Those you care about.”

 

“My family aren’t here,” she argued. “Dad and Irene and Toby.”

 

“Well, I’m sure they can manage without you. Now that you’re...” He looked her up and down, blue and brown eyes flashing with looking on something he liked very much. “All grown up.”

 

Even though she was fully dressed in her shirt, jeans and diner tabard, Sarah felt the unconscious urge to cover herself with her hands.

 

“Stop looking at me like that!” she ordered.

 

Jareth laughed, reaching out a gloved hand to twist a lock of her hair gently between his fingers. “I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything, Sarah. You are very delectable.”

 

“Yeah!” Sarah jerked out of his reach and took a few steps away from him. For some reason she was angry at him for what had almost happened to her, even though he hadn’t been there. Or maybe that was why she was angry at him. Because he hadn’t been there. “So delectable that my sleazy landlord just tried molest me in my own apartment!”

 

Jareth’s amusement fell away only to be instantly replaced by a dark look of complete fury. “He what?”

 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Sarah huffed, turning away from him and searching around for something else to occupy her thoughts other than Jacob’s lecherous smile and greedy fingers. “I’m supposed to be at home. I’m supposed to be at work.”

 

“I’m surprised at you, Sarah.” She glanced at him in surprised. He didn’t look angry anymore, just serious, although his eyes sparkled with a hint of mischief. “The girl who bested my Labyrinth having to _work,_ like a common slave?”

 

“It’s called living in the real world, Jareth!” She let the name slip out before she could stop herself, and then wondered why it felt so natural to her. She supposed it was something to do with all those dreams she had been having lately, in which she thought of him as “Jareth,” rather than “Goblin King.”He looked surprised too, by her use of his name, and she had a feeling that, in a narcissist way, he liked her calling him it. “And I want to go back there!”

 

“To what? Oh!” Jareth stepped around her in a circle, observing her with a wicked smile. “Don’t tell me you actually enjoyed that man trying to touch you just now? So much that you accidently let slip that you’d rather be back here in the Goblin City than anywhere near him?”

 

Sarah gritted her teeth. “Can’t I just...I don’t know, go to the diner or something? You’ve got magic. You came to my world once. You can take me there.”

 

Jareth shrugged. “I _could_ do.”

 

“But you won’t.”

 

“That’s right.”

 

“Why?” Sarah demanded. “Why are you so determined to keep me here?”

 

Of course, she knew the answer to that, but she wanted to hear him say it.

 

_Why? So you can throw his feelings right back in his face again?_

_That’s not fair!_

_It’s true, though, isn’t it?_

_I don’t know..._

“I think you’ll find I’ve already answered that question, Sarah,” Jareth replied, stepping up close to her so they were almost nose to nose. “You wished to go home just now, and nothing happened, because _this_ is your home now, and I am not going to let you slip away from me again.”

 

Sarah stared at him. “You can’t keep me here!”

 

“I don’t need to,” Jareth smirked. “You can tell me you want to return to your world all you like, but we both know it’s a lie. You don’t want to go back to a lecherous landlord and a slave driving job, when everything that really matters to you is here.”

 

A shiver went through her at the close proximity and she was filled with a sudden urge to seize him by the front of his shirt and kiss him wildly on the mouth. Where was this desire coming from? What would it be like, she wondered, to kiss him, to taste him? What would he taste of? She could inhale a slight scent of something that reminded her of sandalwood and leather, a masculine scent he was emitting. Would he be the dominant one in their kiss? She had a feeling he would be.

 

_Oh, God..._

She quickly looked away from him. “I hope you’re not including yourself in that list, Your Majesty.”

 

“Low blow, Sarah,” Jareth murmured, still amused by her fire. Oh, he had always loved that.

 

Sarah turned away from him completely. “What if I were to walk right to that door and out of this castle, right now? Would you try to stop me?”

 

“No.” She looked back up at him in surprise. Jareth smirked at her and then leaned towards her, his lips brushing her ear as he whispered “Because you will not leave me, Sarah. Even if you want to, you won’t be able to.”

 

Sarah frowned, trying not to melt at his touch as he lingered. “I beat the Labyrinth once. I can do it again.”

 

“Can you?” With a small chuckle, he pulled away from her and for some reason she couldn’t place, Sarah felt disappointed. “Can you indeed?”

 

“Watch me,” Sarah responded defiantly.

 

“Sarah!” he called after her as she moved to the door. She sighed but a part of her wanted to know what he had left to say to her, so she turned back to him. He tossed something to her, and she caught it, confused. It was a crystal, like the one he had tried to offer her before, twice, to see into her dreams, he had told her. “When you give up trying to get out, I’ll be waiting.”

 

“What makes you think I’m going to give up?” When he didn’t reply with anything other than a smirk, she held up the crystal. “What _is_ this?” she demanded.

 

“Just a way for you to let me know when you need my help,” Jareth replied.

 

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I won’t need your help. I know this place, remember? I’ve fought its dangers before. It’ll be a piece of cake.”

 

“You say that so often,” he remarked, and once again she felt a shiver run down her spine as she remember him saying that once before, only that had been in the days when she would always complain “It’s not fair!” His voice was so silky, and suddenly she wished she was a child again, back in the days when she had been more frightened by him than attracted to him.

 

_Attracted to him? Why? He stole your brother, for crying out loud!_

_Well, yeah, but...look at him!_

 

And she was looking. She couldn’t help it. In the five years since leaving the Labyrinth, she had only had a few real relationships with men, and yet none of them had ever come across as being as suave, smooth and Gosh-darn sexy as the Goblin King standing in front of her.

 

“See something you like, Sarah?” Jareth smirked, hands folded in front of him.

 

She pulled herself together and shook her head. Her hand found the handle of the door, twisted like the roots of an old tree here in the Labyrinth she had once rested against, right before that fantasy/dream/whatever-it-was where she was dancing with Jareth in the goblin ballroom, and she gave it a sift yank to get it open.

 

“I’m going,” she said, firmly, sweeping through the door and slamming it behind her.

 

“Oh, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah,” Jareth sighed, seating himself on the throne and producing his own crystal from out of nowhere, as was within his magic to do. He turned it in his hand and was immedietly faced with the vision of her walking away from the door and searching this way and that for an exit. “Why do you insist on defying me? But, no matter,” he smirked to himself, tucking the crystal away. “You will submit to me eventually.”

 

Sarah glared down at the crystal in her hand. It felt like another one of Jareth’s tricks, like the peach, like the Junk Lady, like Hoggle, manipulated into betraying her. She clenched her fingers around it for a moment, and then, with a determined passion, she swung back her arm and flung it down the corridor away from her. She expected to hear it smash, but instead it bounced, clinking across the stone floors like two glasses knocking together and then the sound became louder, like it was behind her. She turned in time to see it bouncing towards her, and automatically she caught it in one hand.

 

Another Labyrinth trick, she decided, throw something away and it would find you again.

 

In all her years dreaming about the Labyrinth, never once had she imagined that she might return to it again. And now, here she was, as far away from her home and everything familiar as she could get. Of course it was her own fault, she knew the right words to say to get her into messes like this, it was the same as the last time except now it was her that had been wished away instead of Toby. Even so, a shudder ran through her at the thought of not being able to get back home.

 

She pushed that thought to the back of her mind. Jareth had given up last time. She had defeated him before, and she would do so again. She knew what he was like. He would let her go like he had last time. After all, she reminded herself, he had no power over her.

 

_Is that right?_

_Oh, shut up!_

_I don’t know. You’re seeing him now as an adult. Don’t you think that-?_

_I said, shut up!_

_Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you._

 

She would trust her own judgement, not what her subconscious told her was right or wrong. She could do this, whatever Jareth said; she could face the Labyrinth again and win, Goblin King or no Goblin King.

 

“Well, come on, feet,” she muttered, taking her first steps out of the corridor and towards the heart of the Labyrinth.


	3. Loneliness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five years after besting the Labyrinth, why does Sarah still dream about it? And why does she dream of Jareth?

Nothing in the castle looked familiar anymore, but then she reflected, last time Jareth had been toying with her, conjuring that room with all the staircases that she had had to run up and down to try and get to Toby. Now it just seemed like a normal castle, even vaguely empty. For the first time she began to wonder if that was why he had taken Toby in the first place, and why he had wanted her to stay with him. Did it get lonely in a place like this with no one but goblin servants to talk to?

 

Sarah pushed that thought to the back of her mind and scolded herself inwardly for having thought such a thing. The man was evil. She was _not_ about to feel sorry for him.

 

Feeling a slight spring in her step, brought on by the fact that nothing had yet come to bar her way, she moved towards the great front doors, keeping an eye out for any goblin guards. When she saw none, she took a deep breath and pulled them open. With their usual clunking noise, the swung back and she stepped into the Goblin City.

 

“Doesn’t look to have changed that much,” she said to herself, looking around, and it was true. Apart from the fact that it was largely deserted, it didn’t look any different to the last time she had set foot inside it, although any damage caused by Ludo’s rock friends seemed to have been mended since then.

 

She took a step forwards and then screamed as the stone she trod upon disappeared completely, causing her to fall through the ground, down, down, and then her ands grasped something that felt like a branch above her. With a frown, she glanced downwards and immediately threw her head up with a cry of “Ew!”

 

Somehow or other she had almost fallen into the Bog of Eternal Stench.

 

“But this doesn’t make sense,” Sarah muttered. “The Bog wasn’t _under_ the city last time. We passed it on the way.”

 

Then, she remembered what Jareth had said, that the Labyrinth had brought her back here, not his magic. And if the Labyrinth had magic flowing through it, then it must be able to change its shape, which was why it was always so unsolvable. She was beginning to see what he had meant when he had said that she wouldn’t be able to escape the Labyrinth; of course it would do all in its power to stop her. She had bested it once, it wouldn’t let her do so again.

 

So it wasn’t just going to be a case of retracing her steps from the last time she had been here. Oh, no. This was a whole new Labyrinth now, one that would make it increasingly difficult for her to leave.

 

But she had to. She just had to.

 

She sighed, dangling where she was from the branch of the tree that was growing over the side of the Bog, and wondering if she, like Ludo, could call up the rocks that had helped her cross the last time. After all, Ludo had stated “Rocks friends,” and she was Ludo’s friend, it couldn’t hurt, right?

 

She whistled once, and then again, clearer. Nothing happened. She cleared her throat.

 

“Excuse me?” she called. “Um...rocks? I’m a friend of Ludo’s! Any chance you could, um, do your thing like last time and help me out of this, maybe?”

 

Still nothing happened.

 

As a last desperate attempt, she tried to imitate the low bellowing sound Ludo always made when calling up the rocks. But again, nothing happened, and she sighed.

 

“Ok!” she muttered, glancing up at the branch above her. “Clearly I’m not getting out that way.”

 

“Ooh, dear!”

 

She looked up to see a large red bird sitting on the broken bridge that Sir Didymus had once guarded, that had once led the way from one side of the Bog to other, and which was now nothing but a pile of rubble on one side. It cocked its head on one side as it observed her.

 

“We are in a predicament now, aren’t we?” it said. “You can’t hang onto that branch forever, but if you were to let go-”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Sarah replied, shortly, “I know. If I put so much as a toe in this bog, I’ll smell bad for the rest of my life. I’ve been here before, you know.” She sighed, her arms beginning to ache, and looked at the bird. “How do I get out of this?”

 

“Can’t help you, dear,” the bird replied with a ruffle of its feathers. “You’ll have to get out of this one on your own.”

 

Sarah looked at it. It was a rather haughty and proud animal, she decided, but maybe that could play to her advantage.

 

“You’re right,” she smiled. “I got myself into this mess and I’ll have to get myself out of it. After all, I couldn’t expect _you_ to know how to get me out of here, could I? You know what they say about Labyrinth birds.”

 

The bird bristled its feathers at once. “What do you mean by that, may I beg leave to ask?”

 

“Oh, you know, just that they only thing they’re good for is making hats out of,” Sarah replied, slyly. “I’d be far better if I called up someone like, I don’t know, a goblin, or the Fire Gang or maybe even-”

 

“Madame!” the bird interrupted, really getting quite heated under the collar by now. “I can assure you I am no ordinary Labyrinth bird!”

 

“Really?” Sarah asked. “Then, what are you?”

 

“I happen to be a Phoenix!” the bird snapped, flying over to her. “And if you’d care to take hold of my tail, I will show you what a good-for-nothing-but-a-hat bird can do!”

 

Hesitantly, Sarah reached out and grasped a handful of the bright red tailfeathers. “Are you sure about this?”

 

“You doubt me?” The Phoenix bristled again. “I say again, leave go of that branch before I change my mind and leave you dangling here for the rest of your life!”

 

Sarah took a deep breath and did what he said. Instead of plummeting down into the Bog, however, she was surprised to find that the Phoenix was able to lift her, carrying her entire weight across the Bog and depositing her the other side. She stumbled and fell, landing on her side on the dusty ground, but safe at any rate. The Phoenix fluttered back down onto its stone and regarded her with a “See?” type of look.

 

She managed a smile. “I guess I was wrong. Thanks for that.”

 

“Hmph,” was all the Phoenix muttered in response as it took off in a fluttering of feathers. “Good luck to you.”

 

Sarah got to her feet and looked around, recognising the area as the same spot she and Hoggle had fallen from after escaping from the Fire Gang. They had crashed, she remembered with a smile, right into Ludo, and then met Sir Didymus when he had initially refused to let them cross the Bog.

 

She felt a pang of longing at the memory.

 

“Oh, Hoggle,” she muttered, “Sir Didymus, Ludo, I need you all right now.”

 

When they didn’t appear, and she hadn’t actually expected them to, she began to work her way along the wall, trying to find a way out, a doorway or a hole or something, when a voice somewhere near her hand said “’Allo!”

 

Sarah jumped and looked down, surprised to see a familiar face.

 

“Hello,” she said. “Again.”

 

“So, you found your way back here, then?” the little worm chuckled.

 

“Um, yeah,” Sarah replied, smiling a little. “Sort of by accident.”

 

“Oh, well, accidents happen,” the worm replied, cheerfully.

 

Sarah nodded. “Say, is that offer of a cup of tea still open? You remember, last time? When you said I could meet your missus?”

 

“Oh, of course!” The worm looked surprised that she was actually accepting. “Come inside.”

 

It crawled back through a hole in the wall and Sarah crouched beside it, trying to peer in. It would scarcely be big enough for her finger to slip through. Then, to her surprise, the entire wall itself opened, swinging back like a large door on a hinge, revealing a dimly lit passageway within.

 

“Come on!” the worm called from somewhere inside.

 

Sarah stepped inside. It smelt faintly damp inside, but not to the point that it was unbearable, and it was a more favourable smell than the Bog at any rate. It was like being in the corridor of a crumbling castle. She moved down to the left in the direction the worm had called her from, surprised to see a warm light shining at the end of the tunnel.

 

“Here we are, then,” said the worm as she stepped into what looked exactly like an old person’s living room, complete with a large armchair, a fireplace, a bookshelf a table covered with a lace cloth and a tea set, and a rug stretched across the floor. “This is the girl I was telling you about, dearie, she’s come back.”

 

He addressed another worm who looked almost exactly like him, except that she was pink, rather than blue, and wore a teal-coloured scarf around her neck.

 

Sarah smiled, politely, at her. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you.”

 

“Allo,” the female worm greeted her. “It’s not often we get visitors here. Oh, where are my manners? Sit down, sit down.”

 

Sarah was grateful of somewhere to sit after that initial shock of almost falling into the Bog of Eternal Stench. She sat in the armchair as the two worms busied themselves on the table with making a cup of tea.

 

“Sugar?” asked the male.

 

“Please,” Sarah replied, glancing around the room. She had, in truth, been expecting a doll’s house sized place where she would have to crouch or else sit outside to talk with them. “Your place is lovely,” she added, politely, for want of something to say.

 

“Oh, why, thank you, dearie,” the female worm replied, nudging a full-sized cup of tea towards her. “Now, what brings you back to these parts, then, hm?”

 

“I sort of wished to be here by accident,” Sarah replied, picking up her cup, “and now I’m stuck here. Jareth, the Goblin King, says that I’m going to have hard time getting out of the Labyrinth.”

 

“Oh, well, the Goblin King’s right,” chuckled the female worm. “Plenty come trying to get _into_ the Labyrinth; problems really come when they want to get _out_ again.”

 

“How come?” Sarah asked, taking a sip of the tea.

 

“The Labyrinth is complicated,” the male worm replied. “You see, whatever enters it, it tries to hold onto. Well, you do, don’t you, when you get attached to things, or think something belongs to you. No one who’s ever entered the Labyrinth has left, not like this, any road. Those who have run the Labyrinth in the past get sent back to their world by the Goblin King when they fail to rescue their loved ones; that’s part of the deal they make with him. But when you make a deal with the Labyrinth, when you need it as a safe haven, a place of sanctuary, well, then it’s different. Its magic works differently.”

 

“So, the Labyrinth is alive, then?” Sarah asked. “I always thought it was Jareth’s magic barring my way last time; you’re telling me it wasn’t?”

 

“By the powers, girl, you don’t know?” The female worm looked surprised. “How do you think it came to be filled with goblins and the like in the first place? Even the Goblin King was just like you, once. Why do you think he can’t leave?”

 

“But he has left before,” Sarah replied. “He came to my house once.”

 

“Oh, he can occasionally go to your world when it’s for a deal,” the female worm replied. “But he can’t leave permanently. He’s bound to the Labyrinth, and now, I’m afraid, you are too, dearie, unless you can find some other way out.”

 

“Like what?” Sarah asked.

 

“I wouldn’t know, dear. I’m just a worm.”

 

Sarah was quiet a moment.

 

“So, you’re saying he’s trapped her?” she said, finally. “Like me?”

 

“Oh, yes, dearie,” sighed the female worm. “Been that way for, what, thousands of years they say.”

 

Sarah felt a twinge of guilt all of a sudden. So that _was_ it. All this time he had been seeking companionship. And when he had fallen in love, she had thrown it back in his face. Alright, so being only fifteen years old at the time, she was unlikely to have returned his feelings anyway, but, she supposed, she could have been nicer about it.

 

“Tell me,” she said, putting her now empty cup back on the table. “I don’t suppose you know anything about a goblin named Hoggle, do you? Only, he’s a friend of mine and, well, right now I really need him.”

 

The two worms looked at one another.

 

“Grumpy sort?” the blue worm asked. “Keeps to himself a lot?”

 

“Sprays fairies?” his missus added.

 

“That’s him,” Sarah replied.

 

“Last we saw him, he was heading for the centre of the Labyrinth, near the oubliettes,” the mal worm replied.

 

Ah, yes, Sarah remembered that area well.

 

“Thank you,” she said, getting to her feet. “And thanks for the tea. It really helped.”

 

“Good luck, miss,” the female worm called. “You’re welcome back here, anytime!”

 

As Sarah left, the wall closed behind her, just like a door would have done, and she took a deep breath and put both hands on her hips. From where she was, she realised, she could see the castle, but she didn’t dwell on that. Thoughts of Jareth’s loneliness would _not_ distract her from the task at hand.

 

Which was getting out of the Labyrinth.

 

Forcing herself to turn away, Sarah made her way along the wall, which seemed to stretch until forever. She sighed. There had to be a door somewhere along it. Her fingers found a small crevice and she glanced up to see several more above it, stretching all the way up the wall. They looked to be handholds, and footholds, for a person to climb up the wall.

 

Was this it, then? Was the only way past this wall to climb over it? Into goodness knows what on the other side?

 

Why did this place have to be so tricky?

 

She could always call on Jareth for help, with the crystal.

 

No! If she did that, he would think she was giving up and she certainly wasn’t going to do that!

 

With another resigned sigh, Sarah braced herself, stretched her arms up and began to climb.


End file.
